2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33 Hezekiah was a son of twenty five years when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

LITV⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Hezekiah was a son of twenty five years when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty nine years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ² And he did the right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father David did. ³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of Jehovah and repaired them. ⁴ And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and he gathered them to the plaza on the east. ⁵ And he said to them, Hear me, O Levites, now consecrate yourselves. And consecrate the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and bring out the uncleanness from the holy place. ⁶ For our fathers have acted slyly and did the evil in the eyes of Jehovah our God, and they have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the temple of Jehovah, and have given their backs. ⁷ And they have shut the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and they have not burned incense, and have not offered burnt offering in the sanctuary to the God of Israel. ⁸ And the wrath of Jehovah is on Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them for a trembling, for a horror, and for hissing, as you see with your eyes. ⁹ For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in exile for this. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to cut a covenant with Jehovah, the God of Israel, and the glow of His anger shall turn back from us. ¹¹ Now, my sons, do not be negligent, for Jehovah has chosen you to stand before His face, to serve Him and to be ministers and incense burners for Him. ¹² And the Levites rose up: Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³ and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴ and of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵ And they gathered their brothers and sanctified themselves, and came in, according to the commandment of the king in the matters of Jehovah, to cleanse the house of Jehovah. ¹⁶ And the priests went into the inner part of the house of Jehovah to clean, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Jehovah to the court of the house of Jehovah; and the Levites received and took it out to the torrent Kidron outside. ¹⁷ And they began to sanctify on the first of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of Jehovah; and they sanctified the house of Jehovah in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they had finished. ¹⁸ And they came inside to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of Jehovah, and the altar of the burnt offering, and all its vessels, and the table of the Bread of Arrangement, and all its utensils; ¹⁹ and all the utensils that king Ahaz cast aside in his reign, in his treachery, we have prepared and sanctified; and behold, they are before the altar of Jehovah. ²⁰ And Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the heads of the city, and went up to the house of Jehovah. ²¹ And they brought in seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven young he goats for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the holy place, and for Judah. And he commanded the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer on the altar of Jehovah. ²² And they killed the oxen, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. And they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. And they killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³ And they brought the he goats of the sin offering before the king and the congregation, and they lay their hands on them; ²⁴ and the priests slaughtered them, and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to atone for all Israel; for the king said, The burnt offering and the sin offering are for all Israel. ²⁵ And he made stand the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres, by the command of David, and of Gad, the seer of the king, and of Nathan the prophet; for the command was by the hand of Jehovah, by the hand of His prophets. ²⁶ And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷ And Hezekiah commanded to offer burnt offering on the altar; and at the time the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began, and of the trumpets, even by the hand of the instruments of David the king of Israel. ²⁸ And all the congregation were bowing, and the singers singing, and the trumpeters blowing; all until the completion of the burnt offering. ²⁹ And at the completion of the offering the king and all those found with him bowed and worshiped. ³⁰ And Hezekiah the king and the leaders commanded the Levites to give praise to Jehovah in the words of David, and of Asaph the seer; and they praised with joy, and they bowed and worshiped. ³¹ And Hezekiah answered and said, Now you have consecrated your hand to Jehovah; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Jehovah. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and every willing hearted one brought burnt offerings. ³² And the number of the burnt offerings that the congregation brought was seventy oxen, a hundred rams, two hundred lambs; all these for a burnt offering to Jehovah. ³³ And the dedicated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. ³⁴ Only, the priests had become few, and were not able to skin all of the burnt offerings; and their brothers the Levites strengthened them until the work was ended, and until the priests sanctified themselves; for the Levites were more upright of heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. ³⁵ And also, there were many burnt offerings with fat of the peace offerings, and with drink offerings for the burnt offering; and the service of the house of Jehovah was established. ³⁶ And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced, because God had given preparation to the people; for the thing had happened suddenly. ³⁰ ¹ And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, to come to the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, to make a Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel. ² And the king and his leaders, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, took counsel to keep the Passover in the second month; ³ since they could not do it at that time, for the priests had not cleansed themselves enough. And the people had not been gathered to Jerusalem. ⁴ And the thing was right in the eyes of the king, and in the eyes of the congregation. ⁵ And they established a decree to pass through a call to all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, to come to make a Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel in Jerusalem. For not many of them had done as it is written. ⁶ And the runners went with letters from the king's hand, and his leaders, to all Israel and Judah; even by the king's command, saying, O sons of Israel return to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. And He shall return to the remnant left of you from the hand of the king of Assyria. ⁷ And do not be like your fathers, and like your brothers, who acted treacherously against Jehovah the God of their fathers; and He made them for a horror, as you see. ⁸ Now do not stiffen your necks like your fathers. Give a hand to Jehovah and come to His holy place that He has sanctified forever; and serve Jehovah your God. And the fierceness of His anger will turn away from you. ⁹ For when you return to Jehovah, your brothers and your sons will have mercies before their captors, even to return to this land. For Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and He will not turn His face away from you, if you turn back to Him. ¹⁰ And the runners passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, even to Zebulun. And they were laughing at them, and mocking them. ¹¹ However, men from Asher, and Manasseh, and from Zebulun were humbled, and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Also, in Judah the hand of God was to give to them one heart to do the king's command, and of the leaders, by the word of Jehovah. ¹³ And many people gathered to Jerusalem, to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great multitude. ¹⁴ And they rose up and took away the altars in Jerusalem, and all the incense altars they removed, and threw them into the torrent Kidron. ¹⁵ And they killed the passover offering on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought in burnt offerings to the house of Jehovah. ¹⁶ And they stood in their place according to their ordinance, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests were sprinkling the blood out of the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For many in the assembly had not sanctified themselves, and the Levites were over the slaughtering of the passover offerings for everyone not clean, to sanctify them to Jehovah. ¹⁸ For many of the people, many from Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not been cleansed, but ate the passover otherwise than was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, O good Jehovah, provide atonement for ¹⁹ everyone who has prepared his heart to seek Jehovah God, the God of his fathers, yet not according to the cleansing of the sanctuary. ²⁰ And Jehovah listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people. ²¹ And the sons of Israel, those found in Jerusalem, kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great joy. And the Levites praised Jehovah day to day, and the priests, with instruments of praise before Jehovah. ²² And Hezekiah spoke to the heart of all the Levites, those having good understanding as to Jehovah. And they ate the appointed things seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings, and making confession to Jehovah, the God of their fathers. ²³ And all the congregation took counsel to keep another seven days. And they kept seven days joyfully. ²⁴ And Hezekiah the king of Judah had lifted up to the congregation a thousand bullocks, and seven thousand sheep. And the leaders had lifted up to the congregation a thousand bullocks, and ten thousand sheep. And the priests had sanctified themselves in abundance. ²⁵ And all the congregation of Judah rejoiced, and the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came from the land of Israel, and the aliens who came from the land of Israel, and those who lived in Judah. ²⁶ And there was great joy in Jerusalem, for from the days of Solomon the son of David the king of Israel, there was nothing like this in Jerusalem. ²⁷ And the priests, the Levites, rose up and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to His holy dwelling place, to Heaven. ³¹ ¹ And when all this was finished, all Israel who were found went out to the cities of Judah and smashed the standing pillars, and cut down the Asherahs, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah, and Benjamin, and in Ephraim, and Manasseh, even to the end. And all the sons of Israel returned, each to his possession, to their cities. ² And Hezekiah made stand the courses of the priests and of the Levites, by their divisions, each according to his service, of the priests and of the Levites, for burnt offerings, and for peace offerings, to serve and to give thanks, and to give praise in the gates of the camps of Jehovah. ³ And the king's portion from his substance was for burnt offerings, for burnt offerings of the morning and the evening; and the burnt offerings of the sabbaths, and of the new moons, and of the appointed seasons, as it was written in the law of Jehovah. ⁴ And he commanded the people, those who lived in Jerusalem, to give the portion of the priests and of the Levites, in order that they might be made strong in the law of Jehovah. ⁵ And as the word spread, the sons of Israel brought abundantly the firstfruits of grain, new wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the produce of the field, and the tithe of all; they brought very much. ⁶ And the sons of Israel and Judah, those living in the cities of Judah, also they tithed of the herd and the flock, even a tithe of the holy things that were sanctified to Jehovah their God, were brought in. And they piled heaps of heaps. ⁷ They began to lay the foundation of the heaps in the third month, and in the seventh month they finished. ⁸ And Hezekiah and the leaders came in and saw the heaps, and blessed Jehovah and His people Israel. ⁹ And Hezekiah asked the priests and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰ And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, spoke to him and said, From the beginning of the bringing of the heave offering to the house of Jehovah, it was eaten, and it satisfied, and abundance was left; for Jehovah has blessed His people, and this abundance is left. ¹¹ And Hezekiah ordered them to build rooms in the house of Jehovah; and they prepared, ¹² and they brought in the heave offering, and the tithes, and the holy things, faithfully. And over them was a leader, the Levite Cononiah, and his second brother, Shimei; ¹³ and Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and his brother Shimei, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. ¹⁴ And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper at the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the heave offerings of Jehovah, and the most holy things. ¹⁵ And by his hand, Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, faithfully to give to their brothers by divisions, as to the great, so to the small; ¹⁶ apart from their genealogy, to males from a son of three years and upward, to everyone who had gone into the house of Jehovah, the proper portion of a day in its day, for their service in their duties, according to their divisions; ¹⁷ and enrolled genealogically the priests by the house of their fathers, and of the Levites from a son of twenty years and upward, and their duties, and their divisions; ¹⁸ and the enrollment by genealogy with all their infants, their wives, and their sons and their daughters, to all the assembly, for in their faithfulness they sanctified themselves in holiness. ¹⁹ And to the sons of Aaron, the priests, in the fields of the suburbs of their cities in every separate city, were men who were called by name to give portions to every male among the priests, and to all enrolled genealogically among the Levites. ²⁰ And Hezekiah did this in all Judah, and did the good and the right and true before Jehovah his God. ²¹ And in every work that he began for the service of the house of God, and in the Law, and in the commandment, to seek his God with all his heart, he worked and prospered. ³² ¹ After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came; yea, he came into Judah and camped against the cities of defense, and commanded to break them open to himself. ² And Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and his face was set to battle against Jerusalem; ³ and he took counsel with his leaders and his mighty ones, to stop the waters of the fountains that were on the outside of the city; and they helped him. ⁴ And many people were gathered, and they stopped all the fountains, and the torrent that was rushing through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? ⁵ And he made himself strong and built all the wall that was broken, and raised on it the towers, and another at the outside of the wall, and strengthened Millo, the city of David, and made darts in abundance, and shields. ⁶ And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them to him, to the street of the gate of the city, and spoke to their heart, saying, ⁷ Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor be cast down before the face of the king of Assyria, and before the face of all the multitude with him, for with us are more than with him. ⁸ With him is an arm of flesh, and with us is Jehovah our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people were supported by the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah. ⁹ After this Sennacherib the king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem, (and he was by Lachish, and all his power with him) against Hezekiah the king of Judah, and against all Judah in Jerusalem, saying, ¹⁰ So says Sennacherib the king of Assyria, On what are you trusting that you sit under siege in Jerusalem? ¹¹ Is not Hezekiah misleading you to give you up to die by famine, and by thirst, saying, Jehovah our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹² Has not Hezekiah himself removed His high places, and His altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn incense. ¹³ Do you not know what I have done, my fathers and I, to all the people of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands at all able to deliver their land out of my hand? ¹⁴ Who among all the gods of these nations whom my fathers have devoted to destruction is he who has been able to deliver his people out of my hand, that your god may be able to deliver you out of my hand? ¹⁵ And now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way, nor believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand, from the hand of my fathers; also, surely your god shall not deliver you from my hand. ¹⁶ And again his servants spoke against Jehovah God, and against His servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ And he had written letters to blaspheme Jehovah, the God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah shall not deliver His people from my hand. ¹⁸ And they called with a great voice in Jewish, against the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them and to terrify them, that they might capture the city. ¹⁹ And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the peoples of the land, the work of the hands of man. ²⁰ And Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, prayed about this, and they cried to Heaven. ²¹ And Jehovah sent an angel, and cut off every mighty one of valor, both the leader and the ruler, in the camp of the king of Assyria; and he returned with shame of face to his land. And he entered the house of his god, and those from his bowels caused him to fall there by the sword. ²² And Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all; and He guided them on every side. ²³ And many brought an offering to Jehovah, to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah the king of Judah; and he was lifted up before the eyes of all the nations after this. ²⁴ In those days Hezekiah was sick even to death, and he prayed to Jehovah, and He spoke to him, and gave a sign for him. ²⁵ And Hezekiah did not return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart had been lifted up, and there was wrath on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. ²⁶ And Hezekiah was humbled for the pride of his heart, he and the people of Jerusalem, and the wrath of Jehovah did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah. ²⁷ And Hezekiah had great riches and honor, and he had very many treasures of silver for himself, and of gold, and of precious stones, and of spices, and of shields, and of all desirable vessels, ²⁸ and storehouses for the increase of grain, and new wine, and oil, and stalls for all kinds of animals, and flocks for the stalls; ²⁹ and he made cities for himself, and had stocks of flocks and very many herds, for God had given him very much property. ³⁰ And Hezekiah himself had stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and had directed them beneath the west of the city of David; and Hezekiah prospered in all his work. ³¹ Even so with the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, those sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had been in the land, God left him to test him, to know all his heart. ³² And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his godly deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, and in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ³³ And Hezekiah lay with his fathers, and they buried him in the uppermost of the graves of the sons of David; and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him at his death. And his son Manasseh reigned in his place.